Mind Games

Last week’s Learning Notes are belated for a good reason: Friday the 22nd was our 10th Wedding Anniversary! We spent the whole long weekend, even Monday, celebrating. But I did still want to put some notes together about our 8th week of homeschooling for the year, so here they are, a little late.

This was a light week of book-learning for us as PisecoDad was only at work for two days (Tuesday and Wednesday). It was a heavy week for life-learning, though, since JediBoy got glasses, lost a tooth, had a haircut, celebrated our anniversary AND spent his first night without me!

If you’re interested, you can find my summary of the week’s learning notes behind the cut.

Math

• Math-U-See Beta, dvd segments Introduction through Lesson 4, Lesson 4 student pages A-F (rounding to the nearest 10) and tests for Lessons 1-3

History

• The Story of the World Volume 1: Chapter 7 (Hammurabi and the Babylonians) and review questions
• map work SP23 (Babylonia)
• crossword puzzle SP25 - I wrote a word list for him but he correctly filled in the answers by himself: Ur, Kish, Akkadia, Jericho, Babylon and Tigris.
• made a ziggurat from cereal and cracker boxes
• continued the process of mummifying a chicken
• listened to Jim Weiss cd Story of the World, Volume 1, cd 1 (Introduction through Chapter 7) twice
• read part of Ten Kings and the Worlds They Ruled, and part of the The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia

Science

• Astronomy - constellations, stars, meteors (PisecoDad asked to teach this unit!)
• star-gazed on several nights
• spent a lot of time asking space-related questions and getting answers from PisecoDad
• watched three Magic School Bus videos on space on EdVideo
• made a series of space paintings using watercolor and rubbing alcohol
• played in his indoor planetarium

Misc.

• visited the opthomologist; had his eyes examined; was found far-sighted; chose a set of frames; adjusted to life wearing glasses! There was a LOT of discussion about all of these facets of this life change.
• lost another top tooth; the Tooth Fairy brought a book about the Vikings
• had his hair cut SHORT - this plus the other two life changes brought on lots of chatter about looking and feeling older, aging, siblings, changes, etc.
• celebrated Mom and Dad’s tenth wedding anniversary
• had a visit from Pappy and Nita - spent his first night away from Mom
• submitted a reading log to a local reading program (through the postal mail)
• Handwriting Without Tears: p.25 G, p.26 Magic C Capitals, p.27 S, p.28 A
• played board games: Pirate’s Cove (Days of Wonder), San Juan, Apples to Apples Junior, Scrutineyes Junior, Addition & Subtraction Math Bingo
  
• worked in his Lego Lab on several different days
• made lots of drawings, mostly of weapons
• went to see the movie WALL-E in the theater
• soccer practice for his new team - Buttercup - on Monday night
• soccer game on Saturday - played about half the time as his eyes were bothering him - last game of the season so he got a trophy and ate pizza

Reading

• I did NOT keep close track of JediBoy’s reading this week! However, I was impressed that he read all of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - a book he’d never read before - over the course of Friday evening. He says that his new glasses make it much nicer for him to read for long periods of time. Here are just a few of the books he read this week:

1. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
2. Good Morning, Gorillas (Magic Tree House #26)
3. Christmas in Camelot (Magic Tree House #29)
4. Geronimo Stilton #7: Red Pizzas for a Blue Count
5. Harold’s Circus (Purple Crayon Books)
6. Chester’s Way
7. The Magic School Bus Meets The Rot Squad: A Book About Decomposition
8. The Magic School Bus Spins A Web: A Book About Spiders
9. Fidgety Fish
10. Let’s Be Enemies